The concert promoter and ticket seller CTS Eventim has significantly exceeded its revenue and profit forecasts for the past year with a strong final spurt.

Revenue rose by 22.5 percent to a record 2.36 billion euros, while the adjusted operating result (EBITDA) soared by as much as 32 percent to 501.4 million euros, CTS Eventim announced in Munich on Wednesday. At the beginning of October, the company had forecast sales of more than two billion euros and EBITDA of more than 400 million euros, citing advance sales for the Taylor Swift and Peter Maffay tours.

The lucrative business with tickets for music and sporting events in particular was booming. Sales rose by almost a third after the end of the coronavirus pandemic, with EBITDA even increasing by 47%. As an organizer of concerts, shows and tours, CTS Eventim generated 19 percent more revenue, but profits stagnated.

CTS Eventim also benefited from the arbitration ruling on the failed passenger vehicle toll. CTS and the Austrian company Kapsch TrafficCom had been awarded the contract for the toll system in Germany, but this never materialized due to an appeal by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). An arbitration court awarded the two companies 243 million euros in damages in the summer. At CTS Eventim, this was reflected in extraordinary income of 37.4 million euros. A year earlier, however, the ticket marketer had benefited from coronavirus aid of a similar amount, meaning that the results were certainly comparable, explained CTS Eventim.

(Report by Alexander Hübner, edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).